National Thank You Note Day by Sheryl Todd

National Thank You Note Day by Sheryl Todd

I chose to use my netlogx volunteer day to go to Rosehill Elementary School in Overland Park on December 8th. I taught Miss Lindner’s (my daughter Katie) and Miss Becca’s 5th grade classes about National Thank You Note Day. Rosehill is a Kansas Title 1 school. More than 50% of their students are on free and reduced lunches based on income. The school also has about 45% English Language Learners. Many of these students would not have the means to buy thank you notes.

National Thank you note day is believed to have started in ancient times with Egyptian and Chinese societies when these groups would use Papyrus papers to write notes to those they cared about.

The American version was started with Louis Prang from Prussia who emigrated to America from Switzerland in 1850 to escape the government. Prang was thought to be a revolutionary. He began to create and sell greeting cards to the European market. Europeans had been using greeting cards for decades. The popularity of greeting cards have increased around the world.

I talked to the 5th Graders about who they could write a thank you note for. The students talked about sending notes to parents, siblings, friends and teachers. Then the teachers gave them the guidance on writing a complete thank you note which included a greeting, three full sentences of content and a salutation. The students were required to create a rough draft and then they got to create a card. I provided the fancy paper, ribbons, stamps, and stickers for the final product.

Fun was had by all and the 5th graders learned the importance of writing a complete thank you note for National Thank You Note Day.